They are clearing out the homeless who have been living all winter in the trees above the highway on the side of Beacon Hill here in Seattle. This is a very liberal community but none the less we still won't address the low income housing issue and spen


Spring Cleaning


City workers
In orange vests
Move through the trees
That are just starting to flower
Cleaning up what remains
Of a campsite,
The home of homeless men
And homeless women.
Who have lived
On this hill side
Next to the highway
Through a long winter
Of rain and snow.

But spring is coming
Soon wealthier people
From up the hill
Will use this greenbelt
To run and hike and walk their babies.

The city fathers
Is wise enough to know
That homeless people camping in the trees
Will cause complaint
And get negative media attention
So the police have come
In the middle of the night
And told the campers
To move on.

City workers
In orange vests
Move through the trees
There are elections at stake
And property values
And the delicate
Sensibilities
Of young upwardly mobile types
Who think that
If they stop eating meat
And stop using plastic bags
They can change the world.





Poetry by Budart
Read 845 times
Written on 2012-03-30 at 22:25

Tags Homelessness  Politics  Hypocrisy 

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ken d williams The PoetBay support member heart!
Thus it has been so. I cant help but recall a documentary on the quake thast levalde Francesco , when the fires climbed Nob Hill.
As I said the quake and fiers that followed a greet leveler. The time may yet come when '' whats going around comes around''. One lives in hope it will be so.
Ken
2012-04-07


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
P.S: I grew up in Bellevue and spent many impoverished, enjoyable years on Capital Hill.
2012-04-05


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Well said! No doubt, those fine people up the hill have seen to it that the vested workers have had their salaries and benefits cut.
2012-04-05



Vivid image of the orange-vested workers ferreting out the homeless among the newly budding trees. It's sad that the poor and homeless are treated as shameful and redundant. Way to easy just to tell them to move along--as if they had anywhere else to go. Auden put it well when he said 'we must love one another or die.'

Nice poem with a timely message.
2012-03-31